im feeling a hesitation between 35-40 mph, its almost like a flutter. If i mash the gas it will shift smoothly and if i ease up off the gas and then tap it, it will go smoothly.

But if i moderately accelerate into about 35mph, i get the flutter/hesitation. It also happens in SS mode with 3rd gear.

I have 76K miles on my second tranny. I have a feeling its the beginning of the end. I think i may do the accord tranny swap.

 

Had tranny breakdown during rush hour traffic I am looking to part it out has anyone had any luck with parting out the 02 tl I loved the car but it's safe to say I should have never went away from camry's which is what I drive now it is not a fun car to drive but at least you wont get killed with a 1.2 million unit recall as honda did. Will never buy honda product again.

 

get rid of car I had the same issue and within a few hours tranny went out completely.

Please stay safe! Do not try to drive the car.

 

The symptom on my 176K mile TL-S showed up on the org. tranny a month several time within a week, once in the 3rd gear, it felt like in neutral when pressed on gas, rev up to 3K to 4K rpm. I had to manually shift down by tiptronic. Then last wkend drain & fill DW1 once, clear the CEL. Since then, it seems to be better, happened once, but no CEL night. I think it needs to rebuild eventually, but by flushing the DW1 would prolong paying the rebuild cost.

 

Have an 03 Acura TL, tranny blew... rebuild or get an 05' Accord tranny for $600?

 

I just completed the transmission swap over labor day weekend.

Swap details:
My car: 2003 Acura TLs with 160,004
Donor car: 2007 Honda Accord Coupe V6 with 35,000ish miles.

Initial startup was fine but the transmission gear selection light on the dash is blinking and the CEL code reads off "P1778: Pressure Control Solenoid Linear Solenoid-C Electrical"
and i tested each gear and results are as described below:
P: Is parked (no problems)
R: snaps right into reverse. beautiful.
N: Neutral.
D5: moves but has no power as if its in 4rd gear
D4: same as d5.
D3: same as d5.
2: accelerates like it should in second.
1: accelerates like it should in first.

S/S mode doesn't work right. I havent taken is on the street to see if S/S actually works or not but the indicator on the dash doesn't show me the current gear when i pull it into S/S.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Last update was a 1-1/2 month ago on 03 TL-S. I was trying to prolong the life of this tranny with 3x3 DW1, but with 181K miles, and the CEL appeared every time after clearing the code P0740. 3rd gear didn't swtich to 4th sometime, RPM went up like neutral, I know it's time...

I have a trustworthy mechanic who suggest to rebuild this tranny instead of looking for re-manufactured one, I went with the cost saving one to rebuild this original one. He replaced close to a $1K parts including the torque converter, all 5 gear clutch packs, all seals, syn fluid, plus adding an additional oil intercooler for tranny fluid due to. Total cost $2200.

So for everyone is looking for a used 2nd Gen TL or TL-S around 200K miles, the tranny will eventually fail if it's never replaced or rebuilt before. Add $2-3K additional to asking price cost on your expense.

 

Estimation about how much a new tranny would be on a tl-p? everything parts and labor?

 

Not sure if Acura dealer sells a new tranny, so far all I got is re-manufactured. I would suggest call your local transmission shop instead dealer. You probably can get a rebuild one for $2K, dealer would charge around $4K for swap a re-manufactured one. Or someone has done swap a 07 Accord tranny for cheaper, not sure how much retrofit need to be done.

 

Going to tow mine to the dealer tomorrow. Trans isn't shifting, bumps and bucks when it does shift and won't let me go into Reverse. Scared the hell outta me on the highway. 74K on it. Bought it with 58K so I still get the warranty. I hope-HOPE this ends with a positive resolution. I love the car and plan to keep it for as long as I can.

 

My transmission died. Dealer (service write) first quoted me 5020$. When I asked for goodwill, they contact the corp, and they are now offering 3400$ with 3 year/ 36 K miles warranty. I contacted a local transmission shop and the told me that they will charge 2000-3000$ based on current transmission status with one year warranty. Please suggest me what should I do? I have read in the previous post that I should contact service manage/acur corp. Should I just call Acura dealer and setup the appointment with service manager to discuss this issue? What is the contact details for Acura Corp and any suggestion about what to tell them?

 

I have 2003 acura tl with 90k miles on it. I bought it used in 2006 and it has run without any problems till now. I did early servicing at Acura dealership. I also took it recently there for some other issues and they also did multi point inspection and did not find anything wrong.

 

Call the 800 customer service number, they will respond quickly and decide if they will give you more toward the repair. They pretty much told me the same thing as they told you so I went to a transmission place and paid $2500 f or a rebuilt trans with one year warranty. The 800 number agent took a day or two and came back and said that because I only brought my car in for service for recalls and free stuff that's all they could do for me. Good luck, so far my car is running great.

 

Acura has had tens of thousands of phone calls just like this. Six (separate transmission replacements) from me alone (2001 CL type S). Sold it with 25K miles left on the 100K extended warranty. Never cost me money, just on the road breakdowns and a week in the shop each time.

 

Acura corp offered me 2264$ plus tax for transmission replacement. Should I go ahead and accept it? Any other suggestions? I asked if this is their final offer and they said yes. Based on service history and number of years after the warranty, they could only offer this much.

 

Doubt you are going to get a better deal anywhere, especially since these cars are outside of the warranty extension. Id take it.

 

Take it

 

I just contacted Acura dealer to give my permission for repair. And they told me that 2264$ is my total cost. Earlier I was told that I will charged tax seperately. Thanks all for your support. Let's see how many more miles I can drive with this transmssion/engine. Is Acura TL engine pretty reliable to last few more year?

 

I've had my 07 TL-S for about a year and a half now. When I bought it used mid-2011 with 89k on the OD, as far as I know it has been on its first trans. It has run great from then til a few months ago when the "D" light in the instrument cluster started flashing. only thing tho is the trans seems to be running fine with no slippage. My lady went online and researched the problem, and found out that it is possibly the shift solenoids that just need to be replaced.
Anyone else have this problem?
Thinking of just getting a re-man trans from a site she also found for about $1,200 and just install it myself, and avoid any possibility of the trans failing in the future.

 

I did a drain and fill over Thanksgiving weekend with the new DW-1. It has been 90k since the last drain and fill, but I had no indication of any issues. I just figured I'd better do the drain and fill to assure longevity of the transmission. I used 3+ quarts after the drain. I noted smoother shifting. 4 days later, I repeated the drain and fill. I noted some shift hesitation. After driving the car for 3 days and 250 miles the transmission started to slip and whine, clunk and hesitate on my way home from a meeting. I checked the fluid level again which seemed slightly high (over the second dot) so I drained a little off. Went out to test the transmission and it failed 200 yards from my house. Before the drain and fill I had solid shifts under normal or quick acceleration. If the parking brake was on and I forgot, the vehicle wouldn't budge, no slipping. It is the original transmission with 190k on it, but it was fine before the drain and fill. I'm frustrated. I wish I had never gone through with the drain and fill and have no clue why it failed so quickly. I'm going to try a drain and fill with some Lucas type additive as a last resort, but I'm not holding out hope. If this doesn't work, I'm going to locate on '06/'07 accord v6 tranny and see about having that installed as the dealer quoted me $4500 and the car is only worth $5000. Any other advice?

 

^ find a trans shop or someone to put in a used accord trans.

 

You would get more responses in the 3rd gen TL area, this is the 2nd gen.

 

Hey Greengables, I feel your pain man, but ya gotta admit that your TL has beat the odds by lasting this long. It's a tough decision to spend a substantial amount of money on an older car, considering it's actual value.

If indeed this was the factory installed tranny, it provided exceptional service along with an above normal life expectancy for a 2nd Gen TL 5spd AT tranny. In retrospect, even though you noted no prior issues before the fluid drain & fill, it may've been a shock to the sleeping dog.

Perhaps performing preventative fluid service earlier than the 90k interval could've helped somewhat......but who knows ? Our car's tranny's are like playing the lottery or Russian Roulette in your case.

While best of luck with the third drain & fill, you may want to replace the tranny filter and clean the solenoids as a last ditch effort. Was there a lot of residual matter on the drain plug when you did the initial drain & fill ?

If all else fails, most have had good luck with the newer updated Accord tranny as a donor replacement. A cheaper alternative than $4500 !

 

Hello everyone, happy holidays

I was wondering if any of yall had any advice for me.
I bought a 2002 Acura TL in July with 122k miles on it. it was a two owner car, the owner I bought it from bought it at 45k miles and had the tranny checked under warranty and it was given the oil thing? not a complete rebuild. The owner did all his own maintenance, full synthetic and the like, records.

So I put a tank or two of regular into it at first (stupid I know) and it started to idle rough and stall out, my mechanic said that it was the O2 sensor, so we replaced that, and it was good, but then started stalling again, and he said that somehow the ECM had gone bad as well, so I replaced that.

Everything has been working great for about 1.5 months and now I have noticed that randomly (not very often yet, but getting more frequent) the car is jarring or delaying its shift into reverse and also the RPMs are going to 3500 or 4000 before shifting into third/fourth, and sometimes causing a jerking shift.

After all the crap with these transmissions, I am pretty pessimistic about my chances of this not being something that will turn serious...But I do not really want to give up on this car cause I have only had it for a few months, and I do not have the funds to purchase anything comparable, since everything else is working great...

Any tips? Advice? or warnings? I am not really able to do much DIY so it would mostly be whatever I get my mechanic to do...

Thanks a lot!!

 

I've always used regular gas in my 2002 TL. Well, not always, but ever since I heard Tom and Ray on the radio show Car Talk say that there's nothing wrong with using regular gas even in cars that supposedly require premium. As far as your transmission goes, I'm no expert, but I always let my car warm up for three minutes before I drive it. Some people in this thread have suggested this and I do find that my transmission shifts much more smoothly when I do it. I'll also admit that I try to avoid accelerating rapidly, etc. in the hope that this will help my transmission last longer. Also, go to a mechanic who knows about these cars and will use the right transmission fluid, etc. Good luck!

 

Call Tom and Ray and have them clean the extra carbon out of your vehicle then pay you for the mpg you've been sacrificing.

 

Using regular gas hasn't caused any noticeable problems with my car, and I don't think any efficiency gain I'd get by using premium would make up for the higher cost. Mechanics I've asked have agreed with the Car Talk guys. For anyone who's interested in what they have to say on the matter:
http://www.cartalk.com/content/premium-vs-regular-1

 

there was someone here on the forums who calculated fuel efficiency when using regular vs premium. They found that using premium gas gave them better fuel efficiency which more than made up for the 20 cents difference per gallon.

So i guess if you really cared you could run the same experiment and determine if you really are saving money using the lower octane fuel.

 

Hmmm, the only reason the gas came up for me was my mechanic said that the O2 sensor probably had only premium for like 120k miles so it got "lazy" and when it experienced the regular it got 'overloaded' or you know something like that lol...but i guess no one has any other tips on keeping my tranny from going?

 

Sensors can't become lazy. No offense but these mechanics you're dealing with seem like idiots. You probably shouldn't trust them with your car if you like it.

 

Yea, I dunno, he might have been dumbing it down for me, either way, I found some recs for good shops for TL in my area and I am going to contact them when I need something else...

Just another quick question, So, the trans seems be fine my whole commute in the city (about 45 minutes of stop and go) until the last couple minutes, and on the highway I havent noticed any problems at all while driving. I am supposed to drive to and from DC to Hoboken NJ on sunday and I am starting to have worries if its safe (gonna have my GF with me). I know no one could REALLy know the answer, but anyone got any suggestion on if I should try and borrow a car instead? Or if it on average should be okay?

 

Hey Leifmeister, while nobody really knows the car as well as the owner and principal driver.......You call the final shot based on the feel ya gotten from buying it this past July. I'd check all the basics and make sure that you have your AAA card, just joking !

I know this is a hectic time of year with the holidays and colder weather, but when you add the extra element.....your girlfriend, you need to build your confidence by looking things over as well as you can, along with some test drives. Ya never really know for sure !

 

Yea...after work I went to Trader Joes and the car started bucking and revving like crazy and not shifting...parked it until I can bring it to a shop

 

Hey man, I feel your pain......but, be thankful you didn't get stranded this weekend with car problems. Someone was looking out for your girlfriend !

Hopefully, you'll get things worked out and be able to enjoy the Holidays. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

 

Haha yea! considering myself lucky at the moment

The next question is...I have spoken to two mechanics already about swapping in an Accord transmission and neither of them seem to want to really entertain the idea...I am going to post in the regional forums as well, but anyone got any ideas for convincing them, other than printing out all the stuff from the forum here? haha

Merry christmas!

 

Maybe most sensors don't, but o2 sensors do, and they do it quite often. If you look at a scope pattern of a new sensor, the rise and fall lines are really steep and close together. They also get real close to +1v and-1v. A tired, worn or lazy sensor will show a pattern where the rise and fall look more like a sine wave, and reach only .7v or.8v+-.

 

Yeah, I agree with TLer trash, the O2 sensors tend to become complacent and enable the car to continue functioning on the edge of their range, often times at the expense of gas mileage and optimal performance. Seems like they actually do get lazy with age, imo !

 

i have a 2002 acura tl and i rebuilt the trans and put it back in made sure everything was ok all connections good all pressure sensors are good as soon as i shift the gears it goes straight to 3rd gear wont upshift or down shift need help as soon as possible

 

Hey Kuba12, are you absolutely 100% sure that the "pressure sensor solenoids" are functioning properly ????

Sometimes either the shift solenoid connections or filters can cause issues. Double check everything and then consider replacing some things if getting a CEL code. Did ya drain and refill the fluid with Honda DW1 ? How about the filter ?

 

Hi
Merry Christmas ,I still believe in Santa Claus.
my problem started today actually this morning when i woke up and took off i realized my shifting was too slow then i drove about a mile or less for the car to stop driving and all sort of trouble codes been poppin and all kinds of troubles happened as well afterward.
Lets start earlier or real late yesterday when i replaced the tranny then finished at 11 pm but still made sure every single sensor was plug in correctly and lets also emphasize the tranny was a rebuild unit that cost me a lot and have remanufactured stamped on it. After initial fill, car moved fine on first test drive fluid was checked again and car was driven for 40 mns or less, went home parked woke up took off d 5 starts blinking and i have a movement when i first let it cool off then when restarted car would move for a bit till speedo drops then d 5 starts blinking cel says output shaft sensor circuit i even replaced both sensor with my previous but still have fluid drained 3x tough that was the problem but apparently tranny works fine even manually until speedo drops then car wont even shift back to park .
B4 tranny swap my car worked fine but only 3 gear would slip either manually or auto i still drove it out of town like that knowing i could trhow in 4 gr manually now i even missed that.
Next problem when i messed around with the output shaft sensor plug or plugs which ive cleaned with crc electrical contact cleaner and checked the 3 wires on the output shaft electrical connection i ve decided to check for voltage and ground continuity because i knew the signal wire (blue0) I JUMPED THE YELLOW WIRE WITH A 15 AMP FUSE FROM FUSE BOX BECAUSE LIGHTS WAS NOT BRIGHT ENOUGH I CONCLUDED THAT WIRE WAS SHORTED SOMEWHERE ALONG NOW THE CAR WONT START NOT ONLY BUT DUMPS FUEL FROM TB RIGHT AFTER I MADE THAT CONNECTION ALL I SMELL WAS FUEL (SNIF SNIF SNIF) LOOKED AROUND IT WAS POURING
iM IN A SCARY SITUATION PLEASE HELP IM HAVING NIGHTMARES RIGHT NOW ABOUT FUEL IM EVEN AFRAID TO START THE VEHICLE ANY MORE